Read More

Known to colleagues as "Blue Moon" due to her frequent absences from work, Mrs Tiffin, of Warren Drive South in Tolworth, said she has an under-active thyroid gland - a lifelong condition - which has caused her to gain weight.

Read More

Latest court headlines

She added that she has a "long-standing history of depression, stress and anxiety conditions, dating back to 2007 and more recently in 2013" and found it increasingly hard to work.

Employed by Surrey Police since 2000, Mrs Tiffin became a police constable in 2001.

In 2012, Detective Inspector Rebecca Molyneux joined the unit where Mrs Tiffin worked and became her line manager. Around the same time, Ms Molyneux required all officers to do conflict training, part of which was a bleep test – a timed fitness test all police officers have to pass.

Rebecca Tiffin claims she was forced to resign from Surrey Police and is suing the force for discrimination (Image: Vagner Vidal/ INS News Agency Ltd)

Mrs Tiffin was due to do the test on June 29 but requested to change the date because of child care issues. However in an email Ms Molyneaux said that "was not good enough" and she had to come up with a solution.

"I failed the bleep test again"

After completing part of the conflict training on June 29, Mrs Tiffin did not do the bleep test, saying she had a sinus infection, the panel was told.

In July, Ms Molyneaux reportedly informed Mrs Tiffin that missing the bleep test in June counted as a failure, and under force policy she had four months to pass it.

"I failed the bleep test again on October 29," said Mrs Tiffin.

"I had been trying to improve my fitness following a running plan but I struggled with the speed side of things."

After a number of failed attempts to pass the test, she was made subject to an "Unsatisfactory Performance Procedure" (UPP), which can eventually lead to an officer being dismissed from the force.

Mrs Tiffin told the panel that she felt she was being discriminated against on the grounds of her disability, adding: "My conditions are mental and physical impairments which have a substantial and long-term adverse effect on my ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities."

Read More

Surrey Police news

A lawyer representing Surrey Police said that bleep tests have been introduced to ensure officers were fit to perform the role they were employed to do, and that "it applied to everyone".

The panel heard that Surrey Police also argued that they had tried to accommodate Mrs Tiffin in being able to train for the test.

"We agreed to support Rebecca by giving her time to attend Surrey Police headquarters in Guildford so she could take practice bleep tests," said Ms Molyneaux.

"Rebecca was encouraged to use her meal breaks to go to the gym but if this took longer than her meal breaks, I told her it didn’t matter."

"Over-scrutinised"

Mrs Tiffin claims that there was a series of events that made her feel "over-scrutinised" and that she felt singled out for not completing paperwork, which other officers had also not done.

In January 2013, at a meeting with Ms Molyneaux and a detective sergeant, she was told "she was not seen as a team player or pulling her weight", which "crushed" her. She says she left the office in tears.

Surrey Police claims that Mrs Tiffin had not made clear that her inability to pass the bleep test was due to disabilities and that she had not mentioned suffering from depression - something she denies.

The tribunal, expected to last nine days, continues.

Keep up to date with the latest news from around the county via the free Get Surrey app.

You can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.